I had spent some time trying to beat these CSM's as they are used at a casino very close to where I live. The ones I have access to use 5 decks in them. I modified my KO count for 5 decks, estimated how many cards per player were to be dealt out, and then kept a running count of how many cards were played. I'd estimated cards used per hand for the number of players and dealer and count until I'd get to 260 cards, the equivalent to 5 decks. To make this easier, I would count at a table where the players weren't likely to leave before the 260 cards were dealt out. I spent an evening just counting, not playing, and experienced that the count was accurate. Now, I haven't been back to this casino since then to play the CSM's while backcounting but in a month or so, I may give it a try with small bets. While the manufacture states that the same cards put into the CSM can come out on the next hand, I just don't believe that. The CSM's I see have a large "shoe" that can easily hold all five decks. My belief is that the CSM does randomly shuffle the cards but puts them in the back of the shoe which holds most of the cards.

bigbbfan said:While the manufacture states that the same cards put into the CSM can come out on the next hand, I just don't believe that. The CSM's I see have a large "shoe" that can easily hold all five decks. My belief is that the CSM does randomly shuffle the cards but puts them in the back of the shoe which holds most of the cards.

Do you know what model the machine is? As far as I know all CSMs reinsert the used cards randomly throught the "shoe" so they might come out at any time.